Daily Archives: February 1, 2013


The only people that benefit from America's private health insurance industry… 3

The only people that benefit from America's private health insurance industry are the for-profit insurers and the providers that get charge a premium for out of network service

The average American sure doesn't benefit

Reshared post from +Jim Fawcette

Fallacy of Cutting Medicare to Save Money

Today's NYT.com has an article on how some doctors exploit out-of-network  medical care to charge outrageous, unethical fees.

My take-away was different than the article's focus: I saw the great job Medicare does of controlling medical costs vs private insurance, and the concomitant fallacy the right-wing has that we can control medical costs by simply refusing to pay some of the bills (which is all cutting Medicare, as the Republicans want to do, amounts to) and transferring Medicare to private providers. 

In this case, a Mr. Gonzalez was billed $60,000 for a relatively simple gall-bladder removal. If Gonzalez had been on Medicare, it would have paid the doctor only $958, while the average commercial price is $12,292. But, because he was out of his network, his insurer, United Healthcare, paid only $838 and stuck him with the balance. He ended up getting a community group to negotiate a lowered fee. 

From a report on healthcare costs:

"Among the fees on the report’s list are a $6,205 outpatient office visit to a doctor in Massachusetts for which Medicare would have paid $152; a $12,000 bill for examining a tissue specimen in New York for which Medicare would have paid $128; and a $48,983 surgeon’s fee for a total hip replacement in New Jersey that Medicare would have reimbursed at $1,543. Many of the highest billers were in New York, Texas, Florida and New Jersey."

Fair Health, a non-profit that tracks health care costs:
http://www.fairhealth.org 

Article and graphic here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/health/insurance-industry-report-faults-high-fees-for-out-of-network-care.html?smid=pl-share 

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+Despite the platitudes of American politicians on both sides of the aisle, they…

+Despite the platitudes of American politicians on both sides of the aisle, they don't support education, they actively undermine it*

Reshared post from +Molly Wood

On a totally unrelated note, I just found out that my sister-in-law, a public school teacher, had to pay her own substitute teacher so she could take a few extra days of maternity leave. The payout was a devastating amount, considering a lot of her maternity leave had to be unpaid because in California, teachers don't pay into state disability and therefore don't get the same maternity leave disability payments most corporate workers get. They basically get six weeks of paid leave, the rest unpaid or vacation/sick time, and then at some point they actually have to pay their own substitutes. I'm sorry, but WHAT??? How much more do we expect teachers to just lie down and take it before, yes, we get left with increasingly unqualified ones because WHO WOULD DO THAT JOB?? And WHO CAN FIX THIS?? /rant 

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Game developers pay money to the manufacturers of real world goods in order to reproduce…

Game developers pay money to the manufacturers of real world goods in order to reproduce those objects in the game and that includes guns

How video game purchases help fund gun makers
When you drive that Honda Civic in Gran Turismo, a small portion of the money you paid for the privilege goes to the car manufacturer. As Eurogamer’s Simon Parkin points out, the same is true when…

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Driving an electric vehicle in anything but moderate temperatures (~50-75F) will… 2

Driving an electric vehicle in anything but moderate temperatures (~50-75F) will reduce your available range, often dramatically

Reshared post from +Green Car Reports

How far can a Nissan Leaf go in cold weather? How about REALLY cold weather?

Nissan Leaf Range: How Much Does It Lose In The Cold?
Whatever car you drive, whether powered by fossil fuels or electricity, range will vary depending on weather conditions. Typically, the average gasoline or diesel vehicle will be more economical in wa…

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